Apparatus for launching automobile torpedoes.



G. C. DAVISON.

- APPARATUS FOR LAUNCHING AUTOMOBILE TORPEDOES.

v APPLICATION FILED DEC. 5, 1914- 1 9 1 96 "745 Patented Aug. 29, 1916.

3 SHEETS-SHEET l WITNESSES:

1 ATTORNEYS ms NoRms arms 1:0..Fncm-LI1HLL. wAsRmawM. n r:

G. C. DAVISON.

APPARATUS FOR LAUNCHING AUTOMOBILE TORPEDOES.

APPLICATION FILED DEC. 5, I9I4.

Patented Aug. 29, 1916.

3 S HEETS-SHEET 2.

Greyoy 6717mm BY Z v r w T i/ WITNESSES: W A x ATTORNEY.

G. C. DAVISON.

APPARATUS FOR LAUNCHING AUTOMOBILE TORPEDOES.

APPLICATION FILED DEC. 5. l9l4.

l 1 96,745 Patented Aug. 29, 1916.

3 SHEETSSHEET .3

WITNESSES: INVENTOR GREGORY CALDWELL DAVISON, OF NEW LONDON, CONNECTICUT.

APPARATUS FOR LAUNCI-IING AUTOMOBILE TORPEDOES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed December 5, 1914. Serial No. 875,564.

' To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GREGORY C. DAVISON, a citizen of the United States, residing at and whose post-oflice address is New London, county of New London, and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Apparatus for Launching Automobile Torpedoes; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others sldlled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My present invention is directed to apparatus for launching automobile torpedoes from torpedo tubes, said apparatus being particularly adapted for use in conjunction with the apparatus disclosed in my United States Letters Patents Nos. 1,122,699 and 1,122,700 of December 29th, 1914.

Under certain circumstances, as for instance, when my prior apparatus for launching torpedoes disclosed in the above cited United States patents, is employed, it is desirable that the torpedo power mechanism, such as the propelling and steering mechanisms, be in full operation before the ad mission of the torpedo expelling fluid to the tube and the consequent movement of the torpedo, as by such a sequence of operations an interval of time suilicient for the proper acceleration of the torpedo mechanism may be provided before the torpedo protrudes from the mouth of the tube and is influenced by outside factors. However, it sometimes happens in actual practice, that the torpedo propelling mechanism, or the steering mechanism, or both, will fail to operate for the reason that the parts are not properly adjusted, the throttle to the engine does not open, or some part of the mechanism does not accelerate as quickly as was expected.

By the apparatus of the present invention a suitable interval is provided for the acceleration of the torpedo mechanism before the admission of the expelling fluid to the tube and therefore before any movement of the torpedo has been initiated within the tube, and, if for any reason, the torpedo mechanism fails to operate satisfactorily, the actual launching of the torpedo may be omitted and I have disclosed herein, means whereby such operations of the torpedo mechanism as may have been started may be discontinued.

Under normal conditions I prefer that the several operations of starting the torpedo mechanism and admitting the expelling fluid to the tube shall take place automatically in proper sequence with the desired intervening time intervals, but in orderto provide for failures, I deem it very important to provide means for preventing thesubsequent operations should untoward circumstances arise in the early stages of the sequence of operations.

In the accompanying drawings, I have illustrated apparatus which is designed to carry out my improved sequence of operations in connection with the launching of an automobile torpedo and Figure 1, is an elevation of a portion of a deck tube designed to discharge torpedoes under water and transversely of the direction of travel of the vessel. In this figure the tube, its trunk supporting pivot, and a torpedo contained withinthe tube are broken away to disclose their interior and the pipe connection to the firing valve is shown diagrammatically to avoid the confusion which would result from the necessity of tracing this air conduit through the bearings of the trunlr pivot. Fig. 2, is a vertical cross-section taken on line 2+2 of Fig. 1; Fig. 3, is a horizontal cross-section of the pivot taken on line 3-3 of Fig. 2; Fig. 4, is a horizontal section through the trunk pivot of the tubes at line l1 of Fig. 2; Fig. 5 is a vertical Patented Aug. as, role.

section through the stem of the pivot taken on line 55 of Fig. 3, showing the dia grammatic connection of the firing valve; and Fig. 6 is a detail section on line 66 of Fig. 4-, showing the reduction between the hand-wheel and the worm.

Referring to the drawings, the launching tubes illustrated are twin tubes A, A, mounted side by side upon a trunk pivot B which is journaled in a housing C and is provided with rollers 7) resting upon a circular track 0. As shown the trunk pivot is provided with an encircling worm gear D which is frictionally engaged with the outer wall of the pivot through the medium of a conical friction clutch comprising the conical seat d fast on the worm gear I) and the cone d keyed to the pivot B to be longitudinally by the friction between the clutch members may be regulated. A hand-wheel E through reducing gears e and 6 drives a worm c meshed with the worm gear D. The worm e and its driving train is mounted in bearings in the stationary housing G. The engagement of the friction clutch is adjusted to permit of the tubes being trained by the hand-wheel E and to yield and permit t-l e tubes to be turned by the pressure of water upon the side of the torpedo as it protrudes from the muzzle of a tube in issuing to avoid the binding of the torpedo in the muzzle of the tube.

New referring to Fig. l, a firing valve F is shown diagrammatically at the bottom of the View. In reality this valve is located within easy reach of the station of the oliicer who directs the lire. Communication between a pipe .9 leading from a source of compressed air, and a pipe f leading from the valve F, may be established when the valve F is thrown to the firing position. The air passes through pipe f to the underside of a piston G in a cylinder 9 (see Fig. 5) and raises this piston against the downward pressure of a spring 9. A dash-pot piston H in a cylinder h is directly connected with the piston G and the cylinder 72, is filled with glycerin, oil, or other suitable fluid which will have to be displaced to permit movement of the piston H. The lower part, of the walls of the cylinders h are provided with grooves h which allow the liquid to pass quickly around the piston H and therefore the air beneath piston G will produce a quick rise of both pistons G and H until piston H closes the ends of grooves 71/, when the movement will be checked. During this quick rise of the piston G, a rod I secured to piston G is moved upwardly and operates a bell crank z which moves a horizontal rod 2" toward the left or rear end of the tube. The rod 71 is jointed to an extension i carrying a yoke in which a pinion 2" is journaled and the pinion 2 is engaged with both a stationary rack y" within an offset of the tube wall and a movable rack sliding in guides within the tube offset. The movable rack j carries a trigger J which is normally spring pressed downwardly against the shell of a torpedo K resting within the tube A, and this trigger normally contacts with the torpedo just forward of a starting lever L projecting from the torpedo.

The initial quick but short movement of the piston G before described effects through the connections and the rack and pinion device just described a considerable backward movement of the trigger J during which the starting lever L of the torpedo K is engaged by the trigger and thrown backward in which position it operates valves within the torpedo to set in motion the contained mechanism of the torpedo. The trigger J rides over the starting lever L at the limit of its movement and then rests behind it.

At the end of the initial quick rise of the piston G, the grooves 72/ having been closed,

the liquid in cylinder k can only pass the leading from the upper part of cylinder g a to the operating piston of the expelling fluid admission valve N of the tube A, and thus prevent the operation of this valve and the launch of the torpedo from the tube. He may then turn the firing valve to a position cutting off the air from pipe 8 and affording communication between the pipe f and an exhaust pipe 0 and thereby exhaust the cylinder h and allow the spring 9 to force piston G down, moving the trigger J forward to move the starting lever L of the torpedo K to its closed position to discontinue the operation of the torpedo mechanism. The torpedo may now be removed from the tube and the fault corrected.

Should no failure of. the torpedo mechanism occur, the piston G will rise slowly until the piston l-l uncovers grooves h in the upper part of the cylinder h which allow the liquid to pass freely around the piston H and again permits the piston G to rise quickly. At this moment the end of a slot 10 in the forward end of the rod z" engages and releases the torpedo retaining latch P from the torpedo.

Immediately the piston G rising uncovers the entrance of pipe m into cylinder 9 and the air through cylinder 9 passes through pipe m to the under side of a piston a and raises the same, which movement opens the expelling fluid admission valve N of the tube and admits compressed air to the rear of the tube to launch the torpedo. The torpedo now moves out of the tube, ample time having elapsed for the torpedo mechanism to accelerate and reach its effective operation before the deflection of the tube due to the protrusion of the torpedo into the rush of water past the muzzle of the tube takes place, if such a method of launching is employed. A duplicate set of valves and connections is provided for the second of the twin tubes A.

What I claim is:

1. The combination with an automobile torpedo having self-contained power mechanism, such as propelling or steering mechanism or both, and a starting member the action of which will initiate the operation of said mechanism, of a torpedo launching tube, a movable member associated with the tube and engageable with the starting member of a torpedo therein, and actuating means for the movable member adapted to move it to actuate the starting member and subsequently to restore the starting member to its initial position, if desired.

2. The combination with an automobile torpedo having self-contained power mechanism, such as propelling or steering mechanism or both, and a starting member the action of which will initiate the operation of said mechanism, of a torpedo launching tube, a movable member associated with the tube and engageable with the starting member of a torpedo therein, means for expelling the torpedo from the tube, mechanism for actuating the movable member to move the starting mechanism to starting position and, after a lapse of time, to actuate the expelling means, and means operable at will to interrupt the normal action of said mechanism and move it to restore the movable member to its initial position before the actuation of the expelling means.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature, in presence of two witnesses.

GREGORY CALDWELL DAVISON.

Witnesses:

F. L. BRAKE, E. O. HUNGERFORD.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents. 7

Washington, D. C. 

